Board won't appeal hospital merger ruling

Friday

Mar 11, 2011 at 12:01 AMAug 15, 2012 at 12:13 PM

ANNE GEGGIS, Staff writer

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Members of the Southeast Volusia Hospital District board started to address the mountain of legal issues before them Thursday with a question about whether they could meet in private.

The board's meeting was the first since Circuit Judge Richard Graham threw out the merger the board reached twice -- once in private and then in public -- that joined the government-owned Bert Fish Medical Center with nonprofit Adventist Health System. The judge ruled last month the subsequent public approval did not rectify the Sunshine Law violations committed during the meetings illegally closed to the public.

The closed meetings have been called the most long-standing Sunshine Law violation in the state's history to ever go to court. The 21 meetings were held over 16 months and involved potentially hundreds of millions in tax dollars to support indigent care at the New Smyrna Beach hospital over the next 25 years.

After the board's attorney in the case, Darryl Bloodworth of Orlando, presented legal options in response to the ruling, board members Jackie Herchek and Bob Weiss wanted to know whether a meeting could be held with just the seven board members, or the board and a select group.

"Given the history of this case," Bloodworth said as some in the 40-member audience tittered, "that might not be the wisest thing to do."

Bloodworth advised against appealing Judge Graham's ruling, given that the district would be undertaking the appeal without the district's partner, Adventist Health. There also could be ill effects on the hospital from the one- to two-year legal process an appeal would entail, he said.

"I don't see any practical reason for this district to take an appeal," Bloodworth said.

The board unanimously agreed not to appeal and to proceed with unwinding the eight-month Fish-Adventist union. They also unanimously agreed with Bloodworth's advice to hire an independent consultant to guide them through the unwinding that will likely take until June 30.

Bloodworth said although returning the operation of the hospital to the gubernatorially appointed board was a relatively simple legal matter, numerous contracts and agreements would have to be addressed. He advised them to start meeting weekly. However, the date of their next meeting was not set.

Thursday, the district received a report on the financial realities it and, as a result, the hospital will face. So far, projections show the district has spent $1 million on legal fees defending the Fish-Adventist merger. And that does not include the plaintiff's attorneys' fees that Bloodworth said Judge Graham will likely award.

Emotions came to a boil briefly during the meeting when hospital board Chairman Tom Ownby, a New Smyrna Beach physician, asked the first speaker who addressed the board where he worked.

"You don't know where I work?" shot back Dr. David Turetsky, who works at Halifax Health.

Halifax, based in Daytona Beach, was one of the bidders to be Bert Fish's partner that was turned aside in favor of Adventist. The publicly owned health district helped finance the legal challenge to the merger.

Turetsky said that was no reason for Ownby to impugn his words, advising the board to now end its relationships with those who advised the board when the Sunshine Law violations occurred.

"Dr. Ownby, I wish you took your position as board chairman more seriously," he said.